MATERIALS

PROCEDURES

There are three bones in the hip area: ilium, ischium, and pubis. The following finger play
will help students visualize the arrangement of these bones.

Hold your hand as shown in the diagram. The top of the hand represents the broad hip bone at
the top side of the pelvis (ilium). The index finger represents the bone in the front (pubis),
while the thumb represents the back hip bone (ischium). Hold both hands together, back to
back, so that the index fingers and thumbs are touching. This forms the pelvic girdle. The
reptile-hipped dinosaurs are represented with the thumb and index finger (ischium and pubis)
pointing in the opposite directions.Return to top

The bird-hipped dinosaurs are represented with the index finger (pubis) pointing in the same
direction as the thumb (ischium), which is toward the tail.

After the students have modeled both kinds of dinosaurs with their hands, have them locate
both kinds of dinosaurs on the classification chart. Have them show you with their hands
whether the following are reptile-hipped or bird-hipped: Apatosaurus, Hadrosaurus, T. rex,
and Triceratops. To make it easy, all of the meat eaters and the sauropods (long necks) were
reptile-hipped. The rest of the plant eaters were bird-hipped.

Set dinosaur models on the tables. Let the students use them to draw a reptile-hipped and a
bird hipped dinosaur on their activity sheets.